Baseball Headline

Thursday March 6, 2014Florida Baseball Hosts UConn In Final Non-Conference Weekend Series

After a 4-2 victory over Southern Miss on
Tuesday night in Pensacola, the Gators (7-6) begin an eight-game stretch at
McKethan Stadium by welcoming UConn (4-5) to town for three games. The squads
have not faced each other since Florida captured both games during the 1969 season
in Gainesville by scores of 12-4 and 8-3.

**Fans can receive free general-admission seating
for the Saturday game at 3 p.m. when they show their ticket stub from that
afternoon’s Florida-Kentucky game at either gate.**

The
entire series will be available through GatorZone.com and can be heard on
the Gator IMG Sports Network with the combination of Jeff Cardozo, Steve
Russell and Larry Vettel. Live stats for each game will be available
on GatorZone.com and fans can also
follow updates of each game on @GatorZoneBB, the official Twitter account of
the Gator baseball team.

QUICK HITS ABOUT THE GATORS

·Down
2-0 to Southern Miss, Florida scored twice in the sixth to tie and plated a
pair of runs in the seventh inning to notch its third come-from-behind victory
of the season.

·Sophomore
shortstop Richie Martin is on a career-best 17-game hitting streak and
has reached base in 31 consecutive games dating back to last season. He has a
team-leading .352 (19-for-54) average and paces the Orange and Blue in runs
(12), doubles (4) and stolen bases (3).

·Freshman
Peter Alonso is 13-for-40 (.325) in his rookie campaign and enters the
weekend on a 6-game hitting streak (.417; 10-for-24).

·Junior
Braden Mattson (.342, 9 RBI) went 3-for-4 with a couple of RBI singles
in the win over the Golden Eagles and snapped a 2-2 tie with the go-ahead
base-hit into right field with the bases loaded in the seventh stanza.

· In
his last two outings, sophomore RHP Aaron Rhodes (1-0, 0.73) has thrown
7.2 scoreless innings, with 8 strikeouts, 3 hits and 2 walks. He earned his
first career save with four shutout innings against FGCU on March 1 and
collected is first win with 3.2 innings of shutout ball versus Southern Miss on
Tuesday.

·Junior
RHP Ryan Harris (1-0, 1.29) picked up his second save on Tuesday and is
limiting opponents to a .095 (2-for-21) average this year.

·Sophomore
RHP Eric Hanhold (1-1, 3.18) has 6 strikeouts and permitted 1 hit over
3.2 scoreless innings in his last two appearances.

·Freshman
left-hander A.J. Puk (1-1, 4.70) made his first career start on Sunday
versus Illinois, becoming the fourth different freshman hurler to start a game
this year (RHP Brett Morales, 2; RHP Logan Shore, 2; RHP Dane
Dunning, 1).

·Florida’s
bullpen is 5-1 with 6 saves and has registered a 3.08 ERA in 61.1 innings,
while its starters are 2-5 with a 3.93 ERA in 52.2 innings.

·Redshirt
junior right-hander Karsten Whitson (1-0, 4.50) and Rhodes combined on a
three-hit shutout as the Gators blanked FGCU, 4-0, last Saturday night. It was
Florida’s second shutout of the season, matching last year’s total.

·UF
has 19 extra-bases hits this season - 16 doubles, 2 triples and 1 homer - and
is 5-for-9 on stolen-base opportunities.

·After
6 innings in 2014, Florida is 4-0 when leading, 3-0 when tied and 0-6 when
trailing.

·The
trio of Martin (SS), freshman Buddy Reed (CF) and junior Casey
Turgeon (2B) have started all 13 games at their respective positions.

·In
his second career start last Thursday against FGCU, Shore (0-1, 0.69) posted
Gator season-highs in strikeouts (7) and innings pitched (6.0) but suffered the
defeat, as the hosts committed a season-high four errors in a 2-1 setback.

SERIES NUGGETS

Florida and UConn have met just twice on the
diamond, way back during the 1969 season in Gainesville. Under head coach Dave
Fuller, the Gators swept a two-game series from the Huskies (12-4, 8-3).
Florida finished 28-16 overall that year and won the SEC Eastern Division title
with a 13-4 mark. However, UF fell short in the SEC Championship Series to Ole
Miss (2-8, 1-4).